Omicron the Dominant Covid Variant in Lagos But State Has Stockpile of Drugs to Fight It, Says Health Chief Abayomi

The Commissioner for Health Lagos State, Prof. Akin Abayomi, has revealed that Omicron is the predominant Covid variant currently in the state following a ‘wildfire’ experience during the Yuletide.

Abayomi however revealed that Lagos has a stockpile of drugs in case of a surge in patients that need treatment.

The commissioner made this disclosure during an exclusive interview with ARISE NEWS on the current health status of Lagos State.

“We’ve done our sequence analysis and we have given that result to the Presidential Steering Committee. Our data shows that the predominant virus in circulation in Lagos State now is Omicron,” he said.

Abayomi further conceded that from their data and the clinical picture it is obvious, the ability of the new variant to spread rapidly just like the case is in other parts of the world.

He emphasised: “It’s not really going for the respiratory system. So the pattern is consistent. Our genetic sequencing is matching what we are seeing in the clinical arena. And the fourth wave as we predicted was going to have a very sharp uprise and a very sharp down stroke.

“And that is what happened; Omicron went through Lagos like a wildfire and I think everyone recognises that at one point around Christmas and the New Year, there wasn’t a household that didn’t have somebody with a respiratory tract infection feeling awful, but not a respiratory failure.”

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Meanwhile on whether COVID-19 is endemic or not, Abayomi insisted that just like the flu – human science, human biotechnology is advancing at an incredible pace, adding that 10 or 20 years ago, they wouldn’t have been able to manage COVID-19 the way they are now, in terms of the science around testing, sequencing, vaccines
and new drug development.

The commissioner, however, acknowledged the availability of a lot of drugs. “Quite a number of drugs we believe are quite effective against COVID-19. Lagos has a stockpile of these drugs just in case we have a surge of patients that require hospitalisation and drug treatment.”

He also mentioned that the State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu,approved a reasonable stockpile of some of these very new innovative drugs in the state.

He further suggested that with people falling sick, Lagos state can intervene with hospital management and these new drugs.

While expressing confidence that science is getting on top of COVID-19, the commissioner said they were eschewing collateral damage, which means spending their time and resources managing COVID-19 and neglecting the myriad of medical conditions in the state.

“And we have succeeded at doing that in Lagos; we have not allowed COVID-19 to interfere with management of other medical conditions. And that’s credit to Mr. Governor, his cabinet, and the incident command system that we’ve been able to isolate and manage COVID-19 and maintain the management of other conditions around
Lagos,” he commended.

Abayomi also divulged that they have made sure only a few facilities are concerned with the management of COVID-19 while the 27 general hospitals and 300 Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) and testing facilities are doing what they have been doing.

For the commissioner, the key is that they have been able to keep the economy of the state open despite the pandemic.

Rebecca Ejifoma

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